The present invention relates generally to a carpet standoff which is inserted between furniture and a supporting surface such as carpet. More particularly, one standoff, or multiple stacked standoffs, are inserted to raise furniture above the surface of a wet carpet, thereby allowing the carpet to dry.
In the carpet cleaning industry it is quite usual to face the situation of having to move furniture back into a room shortly after the carpet has been cleaned. In such circumstances the carpet is generally still wet, and any furniture that is placed upon it will prevent that portion of carpet directly underneath the furniture""s legs, and other contact surfaces, from drying properly. More importantly, the moisture in the carpet can cause the furniture to form wood or rust stains on the carpet. The furniture itself is also susceptible to damage from the moisture in the wet carpet; due to the moisture soaking up into the furniture""s legs or into the cloth skirting of the furniture which, if present, often touches the carpet.
The general practice in the carpet cleaning business is to place foil sheets, or Styrofoam ((copyright) Dow Chemical Company) or wooden blocks, underneath the furniture legs. Wooden blocks protect the furniture but can still cause staining. The use of non-wood spacers is successful in preventing the wood or rust stains, however it does not allow that portion of the carpet underneath the foil or block to dry as quickly as the rest of the carpet. The quick drying of a carpet after cleaning is important including: to prevent the shrinking or stretching of the carpet, to prevent damage to the carpet backing, and to prevent mildew. Even if a device is placed under the furniture, it may not provide sufficient height to lift the skirting from the carpet.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,206,424 a foam drying block is described for use as a furniture slide device. Although this device is useful for moving furniture over a floor surface, it suffers from the same disadvantages as mentioned above; precisely because it uses a foam block which prevents the carpet underneath it from drying quickly. Furthermore, stacking of such blocks (in order to lift the furniture a sufficient height) results in the furniture being precariously balanced on top.
A number of devices are known to alleviate an unrelated problem where furniture legs cause permanent depressions to the carpet due to the placing of the furniture upon the pile of the carpet for prolonged periods of time. For example, furniture support devices are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,743,506, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,823,492 as well as in French Pat. Nos. 2,062,032 and 2,265,314. The common elements of these devices include:
supporting the furniture legs on a horizontal platform;
transferring the weight of the furniture to the underlying subfloor by a plurality of protrusions which extend down through the carpet pile and through the carpet backing; and
supporting the platform just above the carpet pile to support a piece of furniture and prevent damage to the carpet pile from the crushing forces of the furniture.
While supporting furniture, these devices do not contemplate the problems associated with wet carpet; particularly the need for circulating enough air between the platforms and the wet carpet to allow carpet to dry quickly. This is understandable as these references are designed to address a completely different problemxe2x80x94protecting the pile from crushing and supporting furniture on a more permanent basis. This permanent aspect of these devices is also reflected in the design of their columnar protrusionsxe2x80x94which easily puncture through the carpet pile, carpet backing, and any underlying pad to engage the subfloor. These columnar protrusions are also usually quite short. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,823,492, the protrusions are of such height that, once they pass through the carpet pile, backing and underlying pad, the horizontal platform barely touches the top of the pile.
The columnar protrusions of the prior art also tend to cause damage to the carpet backing and underlay; precisely because they puncture through the carpet. For example, in the French Pat. No. 2265314 the protrusions are descriptively referred to as xe2x80x9cpoints taking support on the ground between the interstices of the fitted carpetxe2x80x9d. With only four such sharp points, as is shown in the preferred embodiment of this French patent, heavy furniture would also cause the protrusions to penetrate most pliable subfloors making subsequent removal quite difficult.
In general, prior art furniture support devices are intended for long term use and therefore are designed so as to avoid crushing carpet pile. As a consequence, the clearance of the horizontal platform to the carpet pile has conventionally been minimize so that the supported furniture does not appear awkward and unstable. Such minimal clearance affects the air flow between the bottom of the platform and the top of the pile; adversely affecting drying. Furthermore, the prior art furniture support devices do not address the issue of moisture soaking up into a furniture""s cloth skirting which often extends below the bottom of the furniture""s legs.
Ideally, a device designed to support furniture for use after carpet cleaning would be of sufficient height to allow air currents to dry that portion of the wet carpet directly underneath the furniture quickly. Such a device would have a supporting structure which does not penetrate through the carpet backing or underlying pad, would isolate the furniture leg from the carpet, and would raise the leg securely and sufficiently to elevate skirting above the wet carpet pile.
The standoff of the present invention is temporarily inserted between a piece of furniture and a supporting surface. In one preferred embodiment the furniture rests on standoff comprising a circular planer platform supported by a plurality of radially extending vanes as legs.
In another embodiment, addition of an upstanding rim about the perimeter of a platform will cooperate with other rimmed standoffs to enable stacking; the vanes of one standoff being laterally constrained by the rim of an adjacent and lower stackable standoff.
In the case of wet carpet the vanes have a height sufficient to space the platform above the carpet, and form a plurality of pie-shaped air spaces between the vanes which enable moisture in the carpet beneath the standoff to evaporate and thus dry the carpet. The vanes are strong and do not penetrate the carpet. Preferably the carpet standoff is constructed of a sturdy, unitary, non-marking and mildew resistant material such as recycled plastic. Such a standoff is inexpensive and lightweight. The design of the standoff shape and the arrangement of the protrusions allow the standoff to carry a substantial weight. Ideally, once the carpet has dried, the standoffs are re-used in subsequent jobs by the cleaning service or for repeated use by a furniture owner. However, the simplicity and resulting low cost makes it economically feasible to abandon the standoffs after a carpet cleaning job, leave the furniture, and let the homeowners remove them once the carpet has dried.